Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers signed up to the first ever summer school at CYGAMS in 1987 aged 11. Over the following 7 years Chris proved himself in auditions and caught the attention of Ray Jeffery, landing some challenging roles in productions such as Rock Nativity (Joseph), Bugsy Malone (Joe) and Peter Pan (Captain Hook). Chris is the first to admit that Ray’s patience (sometimes), attention to detail and his demanding expectations was what Chris needed but after a big push he delivered often with praise in the local paper reviews, particularly for his role as Riff, leader of the Jets in West Side Story in 1992.

By now Chris was 17, and despite a professional broadcasting career already developing with the BBC, he was determined to do just one last show with CYGAMS. The production of West Side Story was in fact a finale for a whole generation of members who to this day continue to be Chris’s closest of friends and many of which have gone on to be professional performers. Eighteen months later Chris became the youngest ever presenter of BBC Newsround. In an interview with the Daily Mail he thanked CYGAMS for giving him the kick-start he needed.

Chris is now a multi-award winning and Emmy nominated presenter and investigative journalist. A career of 23 years has made him a familiar face fronting the UK’s major news programmes, starting with BBC Newsround, Sky News, ITV News and currently the BBC’s main news. Chris is a regular presenter on the BBC News Channel, BBC World News, BBC One’s weekend bulletins, he has also presented the flagship Six O’clock and Ten O’clock News on BBC One.

Chris has made a number of major undercover investigations over the last nine years for ITN’s ITV News, CNN and NBC in America and ITV’s flagship current affairs series Tonight. Chris is now conducting major investigations for the flagship BBC One documentary series Panorama, BBC Inside Out and BBC News. Chris is also an accomplished writer with much of his work featuring in the national press and for the Mail on Sunday’s award winning Live Magazine. His first book, entitled “Undercover” covering some of his award winning investigations reached the Amazon top ten best sellers. His first major investigation helped end the scandal of child prisoners in over crowded adult jails in the Philippines, and his films on child POW’s in the Middle East won an Amnesty International Award.

Chris has uncovered many shocking stories across the world, his reports on child sacrifice rituals was nominated for an Emmy and his series of films on gang land warfare and the London Bombings won a Royal Television Society Award. He also posed as a trafficker for seven months to expose Europe’s human slave trade. But he is best known for his award-winning reports exposing terrible conditions in Romanian orphanages in 2007 which led to global headlines and a European Union investigation.

Chris was awarded the prestigious One World Award and RTS Journalist of the Year. In 2008 the Duchess of York asked Chris to take her and her princess daughters undercover to witness the problem first-hand in Romania and Turkey. The unprecedented ITV Tonight Special sent shockwaves across the globe and caused a diplomatic storm. More recently Chris sparked an international debate on football related racism following his BBC Panorama: “Euro 2012 Stadiums of Hate.

About Us

Chelmsford Young Generation is a music and drama society (charity registered) for young people aged 8 to 18, established in 1968. Boys and girls work with professional directors to perform two shows each year at the Civic Theatre and the Cramphorn Theatre in Chelmsford.